PS Vita Information

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Review OlliOlli2 Welcome to Olliwood

Not again! I still remember the first time, trying to master all those tricks with my aging finger joints cracking and popping away as the buttons flew, with my inevitable faceplant near the end of a level making me feel about as athletic as a slug in acid.

The gameplay in Olliwood remains more-or-less identical, with progress through the skate park training runs, plus the dual-layer Amateur and Pro mode levels, across four worlds, starting in Olliwood, progressing through an Aztec jungle, rail road landscape, a gruesome carnival of the dead and finally the oppressive future of Titan Sky.

Not that you'll notice much of the scenery, because your focus is glued to the few pixels around your skateboard as your try to get perfect landings, grinds and tricks to boost your score. There are new tricks, but I have no idea what they are because I'm usually too busy digging bits of tarmac out of my face.

Seriously, this game is all about challenge and even on amateur, while you can just about progress through the levels, it takes extreme dedication to get through the pro ranks and master the sickest of tricks, combos and then landing the bastard to get the super-high scores. There are five challenges per level and a few play-throughs required to pick them up to advance.

Then there's the Spots and Daily Grinds where you can try and get the best score to impress on the global leaderboards, yet more challenge to a game already stuffed full of challenge. If you're in the skateboarding frame of mind, then this a perfect mix of science and score hunting, if not it soon becomes a temptation for us cack-handed mortals to slam dunk the Vita and trying something else, wherever you fall on that scale will determine how your mileage varies.

As a hunk of code, OO2 is near perfect with subtle, yet slick visuals, to keep the focus on your deck. Thumping urban audio to keep your head in check and all the previously listed challenges neatly mapped out before you. Ready, steady, splat!